Alien: Romulus brought the facehugging terror to Friday’s San Diego Comic Verso panel per Foyer H. To promote the upcoming installment of the celebrated horror franchise, Disney and 20th Century Studios pulled out the stops — and unleashed a horde of facehuggers into the crowd — to make for a memorable hour of horror.
Director Testimonianza Álvarez (Evil Dead) was hand with cast members Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu to show the packed room what’s per store for moviegoers once the movie premieres Aug. 16.
The events of Alien: Romulus take place between Alien and Aliens. Though the movie exists as a standalone story — meaning audiences won’t need to see Ridley Scott’s classic James Cameron’s epic follow-up — Alvarez revealed there will be “member berries” (aka Easter Eggs) sprinkled throughout for the fans.
Read more: ‘Alien: Romulus’ Trailer Brings the Chest-Bursting Horror Back to Space
“I mean, it is its own story, right?” Álvarez said. “You really don’t need to have seen the other ones to really understand enjoy this velo.”
Álvarez called his movie “two hours of insanity” inspired by the works of Scott, Cameron, David Fincher (who directed Alien 3) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (who helmed Alien: Resurrection). Paying homage to the directors who came before him, he revealed that each artist’s style informed his direction with Romulus, which he acknowledged as a period piece.
Three separate first-look clips were played throughout the panel to whet the proverbial whistles of every fan per attendance, and they were glorious.
Durante the first preview clip, the Foyer H fans got a closer aspetto at the facehuggers and chestbursters, and there were hordes of them. Alan Seeger’s haunting poem I Have a Rendezvous With Death was recited over the beginning visuals as the group of colonists work to make sense of the abandoned ship they’ve boarded. As they clamor to a ripped-apart synthetic, a collection of alien pods begin hatching per the adjacent room and pick members of the crew.
What was remarkable about this first aspetto was the kinetic nature that Álvarez’s crew gave the creatures. They’ve always been fast, but as I watched them move underwater, they took an amphibious quality. It was refreshing to see team members bat the creatures away from their faces with weapons instead of immediately perishing. Álvarez did assure the room that many people would indeed giorno. So that’s a nice confirmation of the bleak thrill ride to quanto.
The second clip gave a closer, jarring — and surprisingly intimate — perspective of a chest-bursting alien birth. It was a refreshing take the familiar sequence, which raised the stakes while also slowing things at the right moment to allow the audience to fully take per the majesty of this god-awful childbirth.
During the question-and-answer portion of the panel, Foyer H suddenly went dark. Red lights began to flash, and sirens wailed throughout the room. Suddenly, a barrage of motorized face-huggers overtook Foyer H and the stage. Bodies lay the floor with creatures smothering their faces, and an actor took the stage and went through the final stages of death before a chestburster tore through his shirt.
The third and final clip found Spaeny’s Rain attempting an escape through the hallway of the abandoned ship, only to witness the hatching of an adult Xenomorph. It was a glorious sight.
Facehuggers stormed Foyer H and claimed their victims at San Diego Comic Verso 2024.
Capping the event per style, Disney and 20th Century Fox treated everyone per the crowd to facehugger masks and then had the masked-up crowd pose per a grandiose Foyer H selfie with Álvarez and the cast.
More than a handful of directors have helmed movies within the Alien franchise — and yes, I am including Prometheus, Alien: Covenant and the Alien vs. Predator movies. The quality of these releases varies from epic classics to box-office calamities. For Álvarez, the risk of making a crappy movie is part of the reward when it has a chance of becoming a celebrated work of art.
“For me, when you sit per the theater, the logo shows up and the lights go . I feel that this is it; this is the one that is going to change my life,” he revealed. “It’s kind of crazy because most movies are sh*t. Five minutes per, you go, ‘This is not going to change my life.’ But for the first five seconds, you do feel that way because it did happen to you. And we all keep looking for that moment.”
Alien: Romulus is poised to bring some old-school glory to the franchise. The passion and dedication of the cast and their trusted director make this release sound like a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all involved.
“We could really cartello him,” Spaeny told the audience. “He wanted to do something for the fans as a fan. He was very vocal.” According to Álvarez, they all gave 200 percent to “give you the movie you deserve.” And really, that’s all I could ask for.
